Clouds and Swords
by AIDragi
Summary: In a world of Terras, the Storm Hawks try to discover why the Cyclonians are quiet. As they look, Others move forward with their plans and drag Atmos in with them. Will what awaits break our squad or will they fly out of these clouds as they have before?
1. Rocks and Vapor

In a world of Terras, the Storm Hawks try to discover why the Cyclonians are quiet. As they look, Others move forward with their plans and drag Atmos in with them. Will what awaits break our squad or will they fly out of these clouds as they have before? Slight AU, may grow as story progresses.

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><p>Aerrow suddenly rolled his 'cycle to barely dodge a Cyclonian energy blast.<br>_Hmm, one of them can actually aim for once.  
><em>He twisted in his seat and with a flick of both his blades, threw a double-shot back at his chaser. Both shots hit with satisfying results, one tearing off a wing and the other shorting out the bike's main engine block. The teen watched with a small smile as the man fell a couple stories before he was saved by his 'chute.  
><em>But That took care of that problem.<em>  
>He quickly turned his attention back to the small "ambush" some Cyclonians had set up, but it had mostly come to an end. Finn shot out the blasters and then the wings of the last three idiots still fighting and Junko was finishing tying up a handful of troops on the flat crag of rock they had apparently been using as a base of operations. Piper hadn't even bothered to leave the Condor when this rag-tag group attacked.<br>_The, what, fourteenth time in three days? Certainly feels like it; if they could do more than just barely handle flying and shooting at the same time, they might have been a touch more successful this time.  
><em>The team had been flying along the far outskirts of Cyclonian territory for about a week before these raids had started up on them. Being so far from all the real fighting, probably more use to frightening off minor pirates than dealing actual Sky Knights, all the fighters seemed to have no idea what they were doing, just riding ancient skimmers and trying to look intimidating.

"Certainly haven't proven decent at this, have they?" he thought aloud. Radarr chattered back in agreement from his seat.

They were only flying around this area to make sure Cyclonis wasn't up to anything sneaky in her own back country; most activity around the front lines had quieted down a lot, making a few squadrons back home nervous and calling up the Storm Hawks for a few favors. Aerrow had to agree that the lack of movement on the Cyclonian side of the line was unnerving, but besides Piper, most of the team seemed to not care too much either way.  
>'It's merely a case of an Ingeltus mole-worm infection somewhere; it's <em>after<em> they start fighting back that we have to worry. We're fine though, I've got twelve cases of repellent spray that should tide us over when the droves start coming.'  
>'I like to think of it as them taking a break for a while. They aren't after us and we can have some fun for the moment, at least until Stork has another panic attack.'<br>'Either there are Cyclos to shoot or I get more time to nap. Seems like a win-win situation to me no matter what.'  
><em>Finn; I sometimes wonder if I dropped you off the Condor, would your ego make you bounce back up out of the Wastelands?<br>_Aerrow landed a few feet away from Junko on the crag before walking over to him, Radarr a comfortable weight on his back.

"Anything this time?"

"Nope," the Wallop replied after finishing a knot, "a couple of crystal bolts, one crossbow and another currents map." Junko jerked a giant thumb over at a small pile of stuff, "Near as I can tell though, maps just like all the others and the other stuff seems just as old."

Aerrow just shrugged as he walked over to the mound for a look, "Finn can always take the heads; a few back-ups never hurt." Picking up a small pouch, he pulled out a map so old and worn, half the air currents shown on it were lost to age. A small bush rattled and Radarr growled, but nothing leapt out at them. He looked over at Junko's prisoners. One had a dent to the side of his helmet and seemed kinda groggy, the other three looked like they were in varying degrees of contemplation on throwing themselves over the edge to get away from Junko. He looked back at his friend.

"Where's you find the rope?"

"They used it to climb over a bad stretch of rocks. Figured once they get out, they could still use it to get back down."

Aerrow nodded and stared at the map again. He had looked over the edge; the crag was about six stories tall.  
><em>They certainly climb better than they fight . . . Thought that's still not saying much.<em>

He stood back up. "Look, we can see you're not trained Talons and we are not here to rob you of anything. We just want to know if you'd heard of anything about what Master Cyclonis was doing." All he got as a reply was three silent shakes of the head and Dent-Head finally fainting. He rolled his eyes, kept the map, grabbed the bolts and returned to his skimmer.

"We just gonna leave them tied up like this?"

"Loosen a few knots if you wanna; their buddies will probably get back up here eventually to tie them loose sometime," was all he replied before he took off.

A few moments later, Aerrow landed on the flight deck of the Condor to find Finn polishing his 'bow. He tossed the bolts at him.

"Thought you could use a few more."

The blond inspected the crystal bolt for a few moments before prying the head off. "God, can't Cyclonian's make _anything_?" he replied, tossing the shaft into a small pile behind him.

The leader of the Storm Hawks shrugged. "Junko found another map," he said as he walked towards the hanger doors, "thought Piper'd want a look at it. Tell Stork to get moving again as soon as Junko's back."

XoOoOoX

That night as the Condor flew on in its search, something moved in one of Junko's storage pouches on his skimmer. A small, lizard head popped out, then the rest of it and then it was gone, vanished among the shadows of the empty hanger. Little did the Storm Hawks and Aerrow know what they would have to deal with with a Vapor Viper onboard their ship.

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><p>I do not own the characters and subject matter of Storm Hawks rightfully owned by Nerd Corps Entertainment. The things I make up I like to think of as mine.<p>

Well, a new story for me, with nice short chapters and something maybe for you guys to enjoy.  
>Comments, questions, ideas (though given this is chapter one, I'm unsure how fast those would pop up), concerns; all are accepted, though constructive is greatly appreciated. Would like 2 comments before moving on, even if they are "Your story sucks!".<p> 


	2. Bags and Ducts

So as I was writing this, I realized this story is going in a much more AU direction then I had initially thought. Does mean I will get to have a bit more fun with later chapters though.

Oh, for those who wish to know when this story is supposed to take place continuity-wise, it is certainly after "Forbidden City".

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><p>"Alright, Who ate my bag of Sky Chips?"<p>

Aerrow sat down behind the table on the command deck. Finn had just stormed in, most likely from the galley, and was brandishing an empty chip bag at everyone there. Piper rolled her eyes before getting back to their slowly-building map of Cyclonian backlands; Radarr tried to see what she was doing from the back of her chair and Stork just stared out at the clouds outside. He just ignored Finn and took a sip of fresh, hot . . . something. He had learned rather quickly not to ask what Stork got when they resupplied. The drink helped him wake-up in the morning and had yet to kill him; not too bad a deal then.

"Oh, so none of you are going to fess up?" The bag was wadded up into a ball, "That's fine 'cause I already _know _the culprit."

The bag-ball sailed through the air and hit Radarr square in the face before bouncing off and landing in Aerrow's cup. He grimaced and sighed, the sight of his ruined morning pick-me-up sitting on the table with Radarr, having hopped up on top, and Finn getting into a shout-growl-ing match doing little to help his growing frustration from the past few days.

"What gives you the right to eat my food?"

Radarr snarled and shook his fist.

"I don't care if you found it out on the counter, it's still mine! I even had my name on it!"

Radarr seemed to slap himself in the face at Finn's statement, but the fighting continued on for a few more moments as Junko walked in.

"What's happening in here?" the Wallop asked.

"Oh, Finn's lost it again and thinks Radarr is out to starve him to death," Piper said without looking up.

"Wait . . . this doesn't have, um, anything to do with some, uh, chips, does it?" Junko looked rather guilty with his question.

Aerrow had a small mental chuckle. "Let me guess, _you_ had something to do with the entire bag emptying itself." Radarr hopped off the table and stole Finn's seat instead.

"Um, uh . . ."

"Wait, _you_ ate my food?" Finn had turned around and stared at Junko with extreme frustration. "Why did you eat _my_ food? I bought it with my own money, it was the last one on the ship, and" the ball appeared in Finn's hands and uncrinkled, "_it had my name on it._" Badly penned, FINN was slowly melting off the wrapper from contact with Aerrow's drink.

"Sorry?"

"Ughh—"

"Eaaha**haHA **!" Stork jumped back from the Condor's controls and then leaped a second time, far enough to end up landing in Junko's arms. "Kill it! Kill it, kill it, just . . . Kill it!"

He pointed back at the controls and they all stared. Aerrow couldn't see anything, it might have just been one of Stork's—a quick movement, a panel seeming to blur a little, set him on edge. Quick glances left and right of him told him that both Finn and Piper had seen something too, while Radarr and Junko just looked confused.

"Piper, ideas?"

"Don't know. I didn't even get a good look at it—"

"There!" Finn pointed up at the ceiling. Clinging to it was some sort of lizard; it was long and thin, about as thick as Radarr's wrist. It looked like it had only four legs, though small enough that Aerrow almost couldn't tell that it had them, like this was some snake that could stick to ceilings. Well, it _wasn't_ an Atmosian Wall-serpent, no matter how much it seemed to act like it, the brown and tan coloration—

In an eye-blink, it was gone, nothing staring at them from that spot of ceiling.  
><em>Where'd it go, where'd it go, where'd it—<em> his eyes searched the ceiling and then locked on to that odd blur he had seen before. Another blink and suddenly the creature was there again, though this time staring down at Junko and Stork.

"Eaaha**ha**!" Stork shouted again as he jumped out of Junko's arms and dove under the table. Junko just stared up at it, giving little argument to common sayings about Wallop intelligence. Aerrow turned his attention back to the lizard-thing, moving ever-so-slowly towards Wallop and critter, hoping he could get close enough to make a leap at the thing. He heard other careful footsteps, probably either Piper's or Finn's, maybe even both, but he kept watching the lizard.

It had followed Stork's dive of safety and stared at the table. It bared its teeth, the things looking so sharp that Aerrow got an uneasy feeling of dread looking at them, and seemed to tense up. Aerrow, hoping he was close enough under it to grab it, tensed to jump as well when he heard a loud click. Reacting without thought, he looked at the source of the noise and saw that the table was gone, Stork holding his hand in mid-air as if gripping something and _exposed_. Aerrow quickly looked back at the snake-lizard and could have sworn he saw it grin before it jumped down at Stork.

Aerrow leapt to grab it, forcing himself to forget those teeth, but missed, Stork shouting as it got closer. He landed with a roll and turned around, expecting to see Stork struggling to get the thing off, and saw . . . the lizard hovering over a grinning Stork.

"Don't mess with my table," the _ said to it. He jerked his thumb up and suddenly the table was back, cups, amps, lizard and all.

"Wha- How. . .?" Finn asked as Stork stood up from under the table.

"I'd say a minor Invisocrystal." Piper looked at the table, mind obviously thinking a dozen things at once.

"Yep," Stork brushed nonexistent dust off himself, "Got it from a back alley merchant on Terra Neon. Thought I could use it as part of my Condor security system."

"So you used it to make the table a trap." Finn took a careful step away from it.

"Eh, it's part of a couple actually."

"Can someone explain to me what just happened and," Junko held the lizard up by the tail, "what this is?"

"Junko, whatever you do," Stork took a few quick steps backwards, "_don't _drop that thing."

"What, this?" The Wallop shook his hand, swinging the lizard around, "It's out cold. You might have even killed it."

"Ah, no; Naivurep Needle-mouths don't die by simply falling. I would also suggest you don't let it bite you when it wakes up."

"Alright, can we just pause for a moment?" Aerrow took a step forward, stepping between the two. "Stork, do you know what this is?"

"Yeh-es, I believed I just covered that with my little safety tips demo, thank you very much."

"Fine then. Care to explain what it is in more detail?"

"I just wanna know how it made him jump like a scared little girl," Finn stage-whispered to Piper.

Stork glared at him, "I didn't see it at first, okay? I just thought it was a smudge on one of the windows, though _I_ seem to be the only one who cares about those types of things, when suddenly BOOM! Needle-mouth staring at me from over the controls. Since I _didn't_ want to be bitten and watch my body slowly get pulled into a thousand spreading micro-holes, I decided to get away from it. You all helped with the rest."

_Though I doubt a lizard's bite produces micro-holes . . . whatever those are._ Aerrow glanced over at Piper to see her roll her eyes again, but it was obvious she was thinking hard on something; maybe Stork's Needle-mouths had a more real counterpart?

"Yes, we did. But can you tell us more abou—" A snarl from behind caught Aerrow's attention and he turned in time for the lizard to swing itself free of Junko's grip and land on his own shoulder. He reacted instinctively, freezing in place, only his eyes moving as he watched it crawl over him, snarling once at him on its way.

Though it felt like minutes, in less than a few seconds the thing had gone from Junko's grip to crossing over Aerrow to finally landing onto Stork. It crawled up from Stork's chest and paused on his shoulder, sniffing him. Once he fully realized he could move, Aerrow took a tentative step forward to try and help his friend, but the lizard suddenly hissed, leapt off Stork and then disappeared through into the ventilation duct.

Stork fainted dead away.

"Oh-kay," Finn looked from Stork to the duct, "that probably could have gone a lot better."

Aerrow looked at Finn. "Have any suggestions on how? No? Good, then you and Junko get Stork back to his room. Keep an eye out incase that thing comes back."

He turned to Piper as the two got to work, Finn frantically trying to watch everywhere for the lizard. "What do you think that thing was _now_?"

"I still didn't recognize it from anything I've read," she responded with a frown, "but what Stork said, that reminded me of something . . . I am _not _saying Stork's Needle-mouth is real; it just sounded familiar, is all. Just give me a few minutes and I should have found what I remember."

"Fine. Radarr," the team's Mission Specialist still looked confused, but hopped onto Aerrow's back anyways, "Looks like we have a head start on some...thing...hunting."

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><p>Review! Comments, ideas . . . really any statment of a sort you wish to make. I'm curious to see what someone may write with permission like that.<p> 


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